Sunday, 10 May 2015

SHOOTING OURSELVES IN THE FOOT?

If ever there was proof that God has a sense of
humour it was my participation in an Alpha
Course. Moreover, I was allocated to a discussion group comprised of young
people barely in their 20s. Someone had obviously misread my age on the
submission form!

That God-incidence would catapult me into fascinating
territory. The lessons learned from those young people have stood me in good
stead throughout my ministry. (Remember,
no church for me from the age of 17 to 50 and I hadn’t sent my two sons to
church.)

In
case you are wondering, Alpha is a 15-session
introduction to the Christian faith and conducted all over the world. Developed
by the Revd Nicky Gumbel, a former London barrister and vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, it is
arguably the most successful tool of evangelical Christianity in recent years. Today
Nicky’s services attract a regular Sunday attendance
of around 4,500 people – most aged between 18 and 35. If you’re dying to
speak in tongues and consider yourself conservative, then Alpha is for you.

The Alpha format at my parish was a fellowship
supper in the hall, then off to the church for prayer and far too many hymns
for my liking. This was followed by the Nicky Gumbel video for that week. Then
we would have group discussions.

I was
almost old enough to be my group’s honorary granny, a cynical seeker of truth
to boot. They brimmed with unquestioning faith and were into gospel music, Christian
movies and coffee shop gatherings. Fresh-faced and privileged they were
a-political and blissfully unaware of life in the townships. I was into
progressive jazz, art movies, political activism, good restaurants and
sometimes hectic parties. They spoke about keeping themselves pure for their
wedding night. I’d been divorced and had two live-in partners, one for 11
years, the other for five years.

Not that I discussed my personal life with them
but the dynamic meant (small miracle) that I had to mind my tongue and tread
gently. My age didn’t seem to matter and I was afforded a privileged in-depth
view of what young people expect from church - how action speaks so much louder
than pulpit eloquence.

Many years later I served a parish deep in
Soweto for the six-weeks of Lent. On the first Sunday I noticed that the extra-large
and very youthful music group was dominating the Eucharist Service. The oldies
were sitting through praise and worship with folded arms and glum frowns.
Thanks to my Alpha group I felt confident enough to approach the talented young
musicians and singers and challenge them to plan a service that would serve
their elders. The following week they wowed us all with a traditional Prayer
Book format interspersed with well-loved choruses and even a few ancient hymns.
There was a beautiful solo during Communion. For the remainder of Lent they
alternated between youthful exuberance and worship that they understood to be an
important ministry to older folk.

But back to my Alpha Course.

It was providing plenty of fodder for me to
take to my Spiritual Director and her husband, the rector. Through them I came
to understand the meaning of “broad church”. They taught me the importance of
respecting other people’s religious views and how I was entitled to question.

Fact is, the Anglican Church accommodates a
wide range ofopinionsandpeople. In the process we
embrace the high and hazy, the low and even the ‘speaking-in-tongues’ evangelicals.

This broad approach is said to be Anglicanism’s
strength and its weakness.

As I’ve mentioned before, we rely on three
pillars, Scripture, tradition and reason. It is what allows us to disagree on
matters like the definition of family and same-sex marriage. We are even allowed
to question whether the bread and wine at the Eucharist is miraculously
transformed into Jesus’ body and blood or if those who take communion in faith
receive the spiritual body and blood of Christ.

(If you want to impress your bishop at a
cocktail party, the first is called ‘transubstantiation’ the second is
‘consubstantiation’.)

So what do you think? Is the Anglican Church
shooting itself in the foot by being too broad?